


Protective Instincts

by MidnightCreator



Series: Paladin Pack [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, I have been waiting for this moment :D, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Platonic Cuddling, Protective Nekko
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 07:12:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9537347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightCreator/pseuds/MidnightCreator
Summary: Lance has not been having the best day and Nekko takes notice. A few wrong words at the wrong time pushes Nekko into acting on his instinct to protect his pack, even if it is from other pack-mates.





	

Something was wrong. Nekko knew something was.

He blink open his eyes and looked down at the human curled up next to him. Lance was awake, but Nekko could feel the unease coming from him. He knew this particular brand of unease too.

“Lance?”

“Hm?” Lance rolled over and stretched, plastering his signature grin on his face. “Hey Nekko, did Shiro call?”

“No, and you know that isn’t why I’m up.”

Lance sat up, “I have no idea what you’re talking about dude.”

“Lance,” Nekko’s ears flattened and his eyes narrowed slightly. “I can feel your mind, I know what it feels like after you’ve woken up from a nightmare.”

Lance immediately slumped, one had coming up to rub at the back of his neck, “Am I that obvious?”

“We’re bonded Lance, I can feel your mind.”

“It’s nothing,” Lance shrugged. “I just have them sometimes but I’ll shake it off in about an hour.”

Nekko was not convinced. He knew Lance, not as well as he could, but he still knew the pup well enough to know that he would brush just about anything off in efforts to not let anyone worry over him. The worse he felt the more he would pretend it was nothing. It was a side that wasn’t seen often, but when Nekko did see it the fur along his spine would rise slightly.

But, Lance was stubborn and Nekko knew that arguing at that moment would just be the equivalent of running in circles, “If you start to feel worse you had better tell me Lance.”

“Got it,” Lance grinned and gave a relaxed salute before standing and grabbing his day clothes. “Best get ready for the day.”

Nekko hummed and rolled onto all fours, stretching to his full length and yawning.

Lance snickered, “You look like a giant cat.”

“I’m half cat on my mother’s side,” Nekko shot back as he shook and stood. “Now go get dressed, I heard you have training later.”

“Yay,” Lance cheered and Nekko did not need a bond to feel the unenthusiastic sarcasm.

 

Lance had really thought he would be fine. He really thought he would be able to shake off the small wisps of terror leftover from a restless night, bounce right back like he always did. And for a time it went well enough, he managed to get through breakfast and most of the morning just fine. Smiling and laughing, cracking jokes like he always did. Sure, he still had those dark thoughts in the very back of his mind but he managed to ignore them.

It was when training rolled around that he realized that maybe he wasn’t okay.

Things started out fine. He joined the others on the deck, Allura and Coran directing the team from the observation area. They all breezed through the first few training levels with ease, taking out the gladiator quickly and as a unit. Level six, however, dropped down two gladiators instead of the one and that was about the same time Lance started to slip.

He kept missing, kept making mistakes. Allura kept shouting for him to stop messing and Shiro would, gentle but sternly tell him to focus. And he was trying, really honestly trying but…

Idiot

Hello dark thoughts, fancy seeing you here. Lance shook his head and re positioned his gun, focusing his attention on the battle. And was portly hit in the side by the second gladiator hard enough to send him reeling to the floor.

Weak

“Lance, focus!” Allura’s voice boomed overhead.

Lance wanted to yell back that he was trying, that he was giving this his all. But he bit his tongue and pulled himself back up.

Pathetic

Lance gritted his teeth. He had done training a hundred times before without this much trouble, he could do it again! He was Lance McClain, the Blue Paladin of Voltron! He could beat some dumb training robot in his sleep!

Useless

Lance hit the ground hard enough to make his ears ring and the breath to be driven from his lungs. He groaned and propped himself up on his elbows.

The gladiators had deactivated and the rest of the team were moving aside, moving out of the path of a very cross looking Altean princess. 

“Lance you must take this more seriously!”

No, not cross, enraged was a better word. 

“I understand that you like to mess around but you have to take your responsibilities as a Paladin more seriously!”

Her sharp tone made Lance flinch slightly. He wanted to shout that he did take this role seriously that he knew the weight of this reasonability. But his throat had decided to close up on him.

“You are a defender of the universe, you must be fully prepared. That performance could have easily gotten one of your team mates seriously injured. This is not enough Lance!”

Not enough

Not enough

You are not enough

Allura was still talking but Lance couldn’t hear what she was saying. His brain was repeating that phrase and his vision was getting blurry, he could breathe properly and he felt so tired.

He almost didn’t notice the boiling rage bleeding into his mind until the door of the training deck hissed open. The force of it was so strong that his head snapped around to see Nekko stalking over.

The hybrids teeth were bared, his ears flat against his head, tail lashing and eyes narrowed into dark blue slits. If Allura was enraged then Nekko was absolutely infuriated.

Lance thought about asking what was wrong but he didn’t even open his mouth before he found himself being picked up princess style.

“Lance is done training for the day,” Nekko growled out as he turned back to the door, Lance firmly held against his chest.

“Excuse me!” Allura cried. “Lance is not done. His performance today has been far below satisfactory. If he shows signs of being the weaker link-” 

Nekko’s anger exploded then, he turned back to Allura so fast Lance was surprised he didn’t get whip lash. But the bigger surprise were the huge, semi-translucent wings that seemed to materialize on Nekko’s back. Despite the fact they were clearly not one-hundred percent there the effect was no less impactful. Allura stepped back, eyes wide and jaw slightly slack and everyone else stared in absolute shock.

“Lance is not training anymore today,” Nekko growled out between his teeth, low and hostile.

Allura took another step back and Nekko turned back to the door.

“I…I can still train,” Lance protested as Nekko carried him down the halls.

“I have ignored you pain long enough Lance and whatever Allura said was the last straw.”

Lance groaned and hid his face in Nekko’s shoulder, “This is embaressing.”

“You need it.”

“I’m fine.”

“Lance.”

The human huffed but left the augment. He could still feel the hybrids anger and a glance up revealed that, yes, the wings were still on full display. This close, Lance could see the very light details of feathers and barely visible specks of white and pinks. It looked like he had taken his ‘creating a galaxy’ trick and shaped it into the new appendages.

“Where did you get those?”

“Get what?” Nekko’s ears twitched up slightly and the blue coloring started to fade a bit from his eyes.

“The wings,” Lance grabbed at one, only for his hand to go through it. “They look really cool.”

“It’s…a family trait.”

Lance gasped dramatically, “Can Kit do it?”

“I know what you’re doing Lance,” Nekko shirted Lance slightly so he could open the door to the ‘den’ as they called it.

The room was pretty unique compared to the rest of the bedroom, mostly because it had been furnished in just about everything that looked green and leafy. Pidge, Hunk and Coran had outdone themselves in making the room feel more like an environment that the Patrians were used to. Two large canisters were set up in the corners that emitted pine scents and a speaker system playing rustling leaves and the occasional bird call on a loop. At the center of it all was the nest, still in the same shape and spot as it had been the first night, the only real difference being that the sheets had been washed the day before.

Nekko sat down in the center of the nest and dropped Lance’s legs so that he was sitting in his lap.

“This is embarrassing,” Lance grumbled.

“But you need it,” Nekko hugged Lance close, rubbing up and down the humans back with one hand. “Now, do you want to talk about all that negativity in your mind or do you just want me to hold you?”

Lanced sighed. He really didn’t want to talk about it. He really did not want to tell Nekko how messed up he really was. And he could feel tears starting to build in his eyes and his cest was almost uncomfortably tight, “Just…don’t leave for a bit…”

Nekko nodded and brought up one of his wings to wrap around Lance, “Okay.”

 

“You’re brother was completely out of line!”

“Princess, maybe you should calm down-”

Kit sighed as she watched Allura rage at Kell while Coran tried, in vain, to calm her down.

She really should have seen this coming. Even before the mess with the Galra, Nekko had always been protective of his pack and they found him again he was more instinct driven then ever. Plus, she had felt his anger building with Lance’s discomfort it really had been only a matter of time until Nekko decided that he was going to act on what his gut was telling him.

And now she was sitting in the lounge with Paladins as they all watched the ‘representatives’ of the Patrian and Altean races argue….or rather, watch Allura rant about how disrespectful Nekko had been while Kell listened patiently.

“So…um,” Kit turned to Shiro, twitched an ear in his direction. “Nekko…sprouted wings.”

“Wait, seriously?” Wow, he had been mad. “How solid were they?”

“Huh?” Keith leaned over to look around Shiro.

“Did the wings form fully or just a little bit?....actually, I bet is wasn’t fully formed, Allura would have gotten at least a good punch if he was that angry at her.”

“Hang on, back up,” Pidge piped up from Kits other side. “What are they? Why haven’t we ever seen them before.”

“Okay, listen up pups, time for some family history,” Kit moved so she was sitting on the floor and facing the humans. “Some family bloodlines have special magic traits. In our family, our mothers side had this thing where a spirit beast manifests within them and attached itself to a trait. In Nekko’s case, he has a crow that is tied to his protective instincts so whenever he feels like a pack mate is threatened the wings pop out. The more protective he feels the more solid the wings are.” 

“What else can you three do?” Keith’s eyes slightly wide giving him a slightly comical look.

Kit shrugged, “Depends on how much time and energy we put into magic training. You should see the Elites, they have some impressive magic.”

“Allura, you have to calm down.”

‘Hello Alpha voice,’ Kit looked over her shoulder. Kellan was standing with his back straight, ears and tail up.

“Look, Nekko and you clearly have issues to work out, you two need to talk. We’ll give him time to cool off and then you both are going to sit down and sort yourselves out.”

Allura crossed her arms and glowered at Kell, “And how long before your brother cools off?”

“Ummm….how mad did he look?”

“Oh, he was quite enraged,” Coran said. “I could feel his anger from the observation deck.”

“And he had his wings out,” Kit added.

Kellan hissed through his teeth, “Yeah…it’s going to be awhile before he is ready to chat.”

 

Hours later, Allura sat in the dining room, waiting for Nekko to appear.

She was still cross. How dare Nekko humiliate her like that, in her own castle! Did he not see how vital their mission was? They could not afford to make errors! That was why they had training, so they could find weakness and make sure they were taken care of before the real battles. He had seen what the Galra were capable of first hand!

His siblings had tried to explain that he was acting on instinct, that it was a pack thing. But Allura had only been half-listening to their explanations, she wanted it right from the source. The same one who had waltzed around her ship and acted as if he could do what he pleased, the nerve of that Patrian.

Her metal train of thought was broken when the door swished open. Nekko walked in, looking disheveled but holding her gaze with an intense fire in his eyes, “Kellan wants me to talk to you.”

Allura nodded and sat up straighter. 

Nekko sighed and leaned against the table, “If you want an apology you aren’t getting one. I’m only here because Kellan is technically the Alpha and Lance said he didn’t want us fighting.”

“I do not appreciate you disrespect Nekko,” Allura bit out. “May I remind you that this is my castle and I can easily drop you off at the next planet we stop at?”

Nekko snorted, lip curling into an almost feral grin, “Well excuse me princess, I didn’t realize degrading your warriors was a common from of training for pups on Altea.”

“Lance was not putting his all into-”

“Are you blind? What kind of Alpha cannot seen when a warrior is trying their best despite not being at their best? Lance has always put everything he has into everything.” Nekko’s ears were flattening and the tip of his tail had started to twitch. “I don’t care what power you hold on this ship, Lance was already having a bad day and just because I didn’t hear all of what you told him does not mean I was not aware of those words effects. And if any of it was anything like that ‘weak link’ comment then I am honestly astonished he has lasted so long on the same ship as you.”

“You, out of anyone here, should have a greater understanding of the big picture here,” Allura rose from her seat, eyes narrowing. “The Galra must be stopped and we can’t afford to make mistakes. What if that had been an actually battle? Lance and at least two other Paladin would have been badly injured as a result!”

“And so you tell him he is weak? That what he is doing is not enough?”

“They are soldiers Nekko, the last hope for the universe! They need to understand the weight of their responsibility.”

“They do! They all understand it and they shouldn’t! They’re all pup! They are children! They shouldn’t be fighting a war of this size, they shouldn’t even be in a war at all!” Nekko was yelling, tail lashing and pupils narrowed to small black slits. “But their here and they don’t have a choice in it! It’s hard enough on them, the last thing any of them need is their Alpha making things harder by saying they aren’t strong enough!”

Allura was taken aback slightly, not just from the words pouring from Nekko but also the intense emotion they carried. There was desperation, fear, sorrow, anger, all wrapped up in an almost crippling need to protect. And, there was another thing that stood out in Nekko’s statement, “…children?”

Nekko paused. Some of the intensity ebbed from him, replaced by confusion, “Yes. By human years they are technically still children.”

Allura felt something in her twist painfully, “No, no that cannot be correct. The Lions would not choose children to fight such a war as this.”

“Well, they did,” Nekko’s brow furrowed. “You…didn’t know?”

“I…” Children. Her Paladins were children. Allura sank back into her chair. “I have…been sending children to fight a war.”

Any anger that had been left in Nekko disappeared, leaving a very confused but concerned creature, “You…really didn’t know.”

“No, no I truly thought….this explains so much but…”

Nekko sighed, “Okay, look. I’m not sorry for calling you out but…I am sorry about the way I handled it.” He crouched so he was on a more eye level with Allura. “You clearly are not a perfect Alpha but I don’t think there can be a thing. Listen, I have no doubt that you are a good leader but you need to allow room to improve. You learned that the Paladins are a lot younger then most warriors so use that knowledge to your advantage.”

Allura frowned, mostly in displeasure at herself for not seeing something that Nekko had seen within only a short time of knowing the Paladins. Her mind recapped the various methods she had used in efforts to improve the Paladins abilities, methods that had only been used on adults and would have never been used to train children in any way.

A small, steady stream of comfort seemed to trickle into her mind, making her look up at Nekko. He held her gaze, not looking happy or angry, just looking at her in the eye. She recalled Shiro once mentioning that the Patrians often trained with the Paladins and that their methods seemed to be quite effective.

“Nekko,” She straightened and set her jaw determinedly. “Perhaps we can assist each other. I hear you have methods of training children on Patria.”

Slowly, Nekko smiled at her, “Best get Kellan too. He is my Alpha after all.”

**Author's Note:**

> I like Allura but I swear sometimes I want to knock some sense into her!
> 
> This was very heavily inspired from a fanfic by maychorian titled A Star too Far Away, link here > http://archiveofourown.org/works/8233762  
> Honestly, maychorian is a huge inspiration to me. Their work is so amazing that words can not describe how awesome it is! It's in large part to them that I started this series. :)
> 
> Please leave a comment on what you thought and have a lovely day. :)


End file.
